Living in a material world

New York City is popularly designated the global capital of Mammon, the most crassly material economic zone in a crassly materialistic world. Though I am naturally defensive about the city I call home, I can understand why people think this way. When they think of New York, most people think of Wall Street excess, overpriced Madison Avenue boutiques, nose-bleed expensive restaurants, and hotel rooms that cost as much for a night as a three-bedroom house in Muncie rents for a month.